Device for discharging the quenched coke from an inclined discharging surface in a coking-plant



J1me 1959 A. J. VAN ZIJP DEVICE FOR DISCHARGING THE QUENCHED com: FROM AN INCLINED DISCHARGING SURFACE IN A COKING-PLANT Filed Oct. 16, 1956 2 SheetsSheet.l.

IN V EN TOR.

ANT ONIUS JOHANNES VAN {UP June 30, 1959 A. J. VAN ZIJP DEVICE FOR DISCHARGING THE QUENCHED com FROM AN INCLINED DISCHARGING SURFACE IN A COKING-PLANT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 16, 1956 Jig- A/vra/v/us JZHA Myes #V/Z/JP United States Patent DEVICE FOR DISCHARGING THE QUENCHED COKE FROM AN INCLINED DISCHARGING SURFACE IN A COKING-PLANT Antonius .I. van Zijp, Beverwijk, Netherlands, assignor to Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken N.V., IJmuiden, Netherlands, a Dutch limited-liability company Application October 16, 1956, Serial No. 616,181

Claims priority, application Netherlands November 1, 1955 V 5 Claims. 01. 214-11 The invention relates to a device for discharging the quenched coke from an inclined discharging surface in a coking-plant, which device at the bottom of said surface comprises a discharge conveyor or other discharge means, and means between the inclined surface and said conveyor for causing the coke toflow at choice locally to said conveyor. v

A device of this type is known from practice. In said known device the means for causing the coke to flow at choice locally to the conveyor are formed by tipping up gates, which when lowered arrest the coke on the inclined surface and which can be tipped up by an operator, so that locally the coke is allowed to slide down the inclined surface to the discharge conveyor or the like.

In this device the dispense is irregular and dependent on the operator. This is a considerable disadvantage, especially because the discharge conveyor usually feeds the coke to a screening plant and the efliciency of the screens is greatest with a particular uniform supply and load, both as regards the capacity and as regards the purity of the screened product. Moreover, in come quence of the irregular supply the coke will often be spilled off the conveyor, while it is a considerable disadvantage that there is no guarantee that all the pieces of coke will remain on the inclined surface for about the same period of time. The function of this inclined surface is to allow the coke after the quenching to dry and, if necessary, to cool, and this again will not take place uniformly in this case and consequently for part of the coke not to a sufficient extent. If the drying is insufficient, this results in inferior quality of the coke, and if the cooling is insuflicient, this involves damage to the discharge conveyor because pieces of coke which are too hot will fall on it.

The object of the invention is to obviate these disadvantages.

To achieve this, a device as referred to in the preamble is characterized in that at the bottom of the inclined surface this device comprises a carriage adapted to move along said surface part of which carriage is adapted to engage the coke and upon movement causes the coke to flow to the discharge conveyor or the like, and that at the bottom of the inclined surface this device further has a terminal arresting surface for forcibly preventing the flow of the coke to the discharge conveyor or the like when the said part of the carriage engaging the coke is stationary.

In this way it is possible to remove the coke as it Were in uniform strips from the bottom of the inclined surface and to supply the discharge conveyor very uniformly, while this device can easily be mechanized to such an extent that less operating personnel will be necessary.

The terminal arresting surface is preferably fitted to the fixed structure of the device and is stationary during operation. It may have the form of a substantially horiice zontal shelf, on which the coke forms a slope of repose in which the part of the carriage engaging the coke, designed as a reclaiming mechanism, is adapted to dig. It is also possible for the terminal arresting surface to be formed by a part, of the carriage, e.g. an auxiliary conveyor belt thereon, the tipping-up gates used in the conventional design of the device referred to above still being present, but no longer serving for the dispensing. In that case they merely serve to arrest the coke on the inclined surface when the carriage is in another part of its track. When the carriage has arrived on the spot, one or more of the gates in it are opened by hand or automatically, upon which the auxiliary conveyor on the carriage serves as the terminal arresting surface for the coke. When the said conveyor is stationary, the coke is not transmitted, but is simply prevented by said conveyor from moving on, so that it remains in its place. When the conveyor moves, the coke is uniformly supplied by it to the discharge conveyor.

As has been said, however, the terminal arresting surface preferably forms part of the stationary structure, the movable part on the carriage engaging the coke in the slope of repose which is formed on this terminal arresting surface. This reclaiming mechanism may be a plough-shaped part stationary on the carriage, which digs away the coke when the carriage moves, but the reclaiming mechanism preferably consists of a digging wheel with a substantially vertical shaft and with freely extending prongs.

The invention will now be elucidated more fully with reference to the annexed drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a cross-section and elevational view of a device according to the invention, at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the inclined surface of the discharge conveyor.

Fig. 2 is a top elevational view of a part of this device.

To the extreme left in Fig.1 the coke oven battery (not shown) has to be imagined, along which moves a coke-quenching car 1, which takes up coke pushed from the ovens, transports it to a quenching tower, and subsequently supplies it at the desired place to an inclined surface 2. Especially upon application of the invention it is advisable to supply the coke from the quenching car to the inclined surface while said car is moving, so that the coke comes to rest in a narrow strip at the top of the inclined surface and, dependent on the discharge of the coke at the bottom of said surface, will gradually flow down it. Successive strips on the incline are designated S1, S2, S3.

At the bottom the surface 2 passes into a steep part 3, which in conjunction with baflies 4 forms a substantially vertical, downwardly discharging, bag-shaped space for the coke. Continuous with this bag-shaped space is a substantially horizontal shelf 5, which fulfills the function of a stationary terminal arresting surface. The coke rests on this while forming a slope 6 with the angle of repose from the lower edge of the baflde 4 to the plane of the shelf 5. The baflle 4, or its lower part only, may be adjustable in the vertical direction.

Located in the pit at the bottom of the inclined surface 2 is the discharge conveyor 7. The latter passes in the longitudinal direction underneath the inclined surface and conveys the coke to the screening plant. This belt is driven at constant speed. Above the belt a carriage moves on a lower rail 8 and along an upper rail 9. Extending between these rails are columns 10, which at the top and the bottom carry the supporting and guiding Wheels for said carriage. On the columns 10 there is a supporting structure for the various parts of the carriage, which are to be described more in detail.

On this supporting structure the carriage has a crossslide 11, which can be operated by means of a screw spindle 12, a sprocket wheel 13, and a hand chain 14 by an operator standing to the right of the carriage in the pit. This slide 11 supports an electric motor 15, an adjustable gear mechanism 16. a wormgear box 17, and a reduction gear 18. Extending through the bottom of the slide is a shaft 19, on which a digging wheel 20 is keyed. As shown in the drawing, this digging wheel has a vertical shaft and a number of digging prongs; 21; whose lower edges are substantially horizontal, and whose shape and position in a plane perpendicular to the shaft 19 appears from Fig. 2. These prongs 21 therefore are curved outwards relative to the radial position in the direction of rotation.

In Fig. l the cross-slide 11 is shown in the position farthest to the left. In the position farthest to the right the prongs 21 of the digging Wheel 20 lie so far to the right as is shown by a line of dashes in Figs. 1 and 2, so that the prongs extending to the right enter into a fixed boxlike part 22 of the carriage. With the aid of the cross-slide 11 the depth of engagement of the digging wheel in the coke on the shelf can therefore be set at the required value, while the digging wheel can also be altogether withdrawn from the coke, which is of importance in case of breakdown, especially in the presence of more than one carriage when one of the carriages drops out and another one has to take over its function in that part of the inclined surface. By means of the mechanism 16 the speed of rotation of the digging Wheel can be varied. 7

When the carriage is moved, while at the same time the digging wheel 20 is caused to rotate, a uniform quantity of coke can be dug from the shelf 5 on to the discharge conveyor 7. In places where coke is thus discharged, the coke from the inclined surface 2 slides down until the discharged quantity on the shelf 5 has been supplemented, while upon interruption of the coke discharge the coke in those places is automatically prevented from moving downwards.

Between the digging wheel 20 and the discharge conveyor 7 there are lateral boundary partitions 23, which prevent the coke dropping on the conveyor belt 7 too close to its side edges. When the conveyor belt 7 has taken along this coke to beyond the carriage, this coke may occupy a slightly greater width. If more than one carriage is used along the same inclined surface 2, it is advisable to make the partitions 23 of at least the carriage(s), past which the coke from another carriage has to move with the conveyor 7, pivotably retractable, so that they do not obstruct said coke when it passes underneath said carria'g'e(s).

The supply of electric energy to the motor '15 for driving the digging wheel 20 and to the motor for driving the carriage preferably takes place by means of a cable, which is connected at one end with the carriage, is trailing along a conductor and is allowed to sag in a zigzag manner. This cable is shown at 24.

It is possible to cause the carriage to move to and fro quite automatically by the use of end switches, part of the carriage striking against abutments on a railing 25 of the fixed structure when the direction of movement of the carriage has to be reversed. Such abutments can be so adjustable along said railing that the carriage can continue automatically to travel to and fro any desired stretch. Near this railing 25 may be posted an operator who can, if desired, stop the carriage or set it in motion, while from there the coke on the incline can be carefully inspected and can be subjected to a supplementary quenching with water from a hose if part of the coke is still too hot. No further operators are required during normal operation for the device described.

The manual operation of the slide 11 of course is of advantage in case of interruption of the supply of electric energy to the carriage, so that it is always possible to retract the diggingwheel from the coke by hand.

What I claim is:

1. In a coking plant, a coke discharging incline, a conveyance for transferring batches of quenched coke from the coking oven of said plant to the top of said incline in successive thin-layer strips extending trans.- verse to said incline, the angle of inclination of said incline being such that newly added strips are held back by preceding strips, a device at the bottom of said incline for. transferring the coke from the bottom of said incline to a conveyor, said device comprising a carriage movable along the bottom of said incline, said carriage having a part adapted to engage the coke and upon movement to cause the coke to flow to said conveyor, and a terminal arresting surface at the bottom of said incline for forcibly preventing the flow of coke to the conveyor when the said part of the carriage engaging the coke is stationary, whereby said strips of coke cool and dry uniformly on said incline and are transferred to said conveyor uniformly with minimum mixing of said batches and with resultant uniformity of moisture content.

2; The coking plant of claim 1, wherein said terminal arresting surface is a substantially horizontal shelf which receives the coke from the bottom of said incline, said carriage part comprising means for digging in the coke on said shelf.

3. The coking plant of claim 2-, wherein said digging means is a wheel having radially extending prongs.

4. The coking plant'of claim 2, wherein said part is displaceable on the carriage away from and towards the incline and is adjustable to a position at which it disengages the coke on said shelf.

5. The coking plant of claim 2, wherein a vertical baffle is spaced from the bottom of said incline and forms a passage for the coke from the incline to the shelf.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,480,726 Greyson Aug. 30, 1949 2,679,324 Cannon May 25, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 434,662 German Sept. 30, 1926 722,514 France Dec. 29, 1931 

